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Gone are the days of the traditional B2B marketer who works exclusively with the sales team and over the phone to generate sales leads. In today's digital world, B2B buyers are more self-sufficient and reliant on digital marketing assets.

The most interesting recent trend we've been seeing is the adoption on the B2B side of B2C techniques. B2B marketing has become so sophisticated that it has begun to embrace what B2C marketing does. It's not just about lead management. It's about the customer journey and incorporating both outbound channels and inbound interactions.

So, how does a B2B marketer embrace B2C marketing techniques? Here are five approaches that B2B marketers can borrow from B2Cs.

1. They embrace digital

In a cross-channel world, embracing digital involves tying online digital to other tactics where marketers use marketing automation. For buyers in a B2B world, much of their research into a purchase happens before they're known or authenticated.

Marketers need to be able to tie in interactions from that aspect of the journey with what the buyer is doing in other channels. Buyers rely on those channels. They don't want to talk to someone; they want to research on their own.

Marketers must use marketing automation and technology to enable a cohesive buyer experience. Every time a buyer visits, the experience should be consistent on other channels.

2. B2Bs integrate, integrate, integrate

For example, if (in your organization) mobile is supported in a separate platform from the marketing automation platform, you should find ways to make a seamless integration between the two.

You want to integrate analytics, too. Its common use is to gather insights gained from analytics for better decision-making—checking out what's working, what's not, and so on— but also to be more cutting edge and forward thinking. For example, a marketer could use analytics to help predict who is more likely to respond or engage to a campaign and take action based on those insights.

Integrating content and content management is another step. Marketers need centralized access to digital assets being used across different Web properties, in emails, and on landing pages. And markers don't just need access to these assets, they also need to be able to use them more consistently.

3. B2Bs know how to manage resources

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Five B2C Approaches That B2B Marketers Should Steal

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR

image of Bruce Swann

Bruce Swann is senior product marketing manager at Adobe.

LinkedIn: Bruce Swann